Agenda item

To discuss changes to concessionary travel in London. 

David Taylor (Head of Traffic and Transportation) gave a presentation on Concessionary Travel.  Copies of the slides were available on the Council website or from the Committee Secretary. 

He highlighted the following:

·         The presentation covered four separate concessions: under 18 free travel, the Transport for London Oyster card, the freedom pass and special needs educational travel. 

·         Young people living in London had been able to travel in London for free since free travel was introduced in 2005.  This was not so in the rest of the country. 

·         The free travel was funded by Transport for London.  The government was now proposing to temporarily remove or restrict free travel, arguing that there was a need to discourage people from traveling on public transport, and encourage more walking and cycling, because of reduced capacity, resulting from Coronavirus restrictions. 

·         The Mayor of London funded the Transport for London Oyster card for all Londoners over the age of 60. This did not apply in the rest of the country.

·         The Freedom pass was a concession that was available to everyone over retirement age across the country.  The costs of this were shared by the Government, Transport for London and the borough.  It cost the Council £11.5m a year. 

·         The Council has a statutory duty to fund Special Educational Needs Travel.  This was a significant cost and there was no extra support for it. 

The Chair introduced Amma Coleman-Green from Transport for London who gave a verbal presentation.  The key points were as follows: 

·         As part of its agreement to provide funds to make up for the loses caused by the Coronavirus, the Government have asked Transport for London to temporarily suspend free travel for under 18’s. 

·         This would take effect after the October half term, in the first week in November. 

·         There were some exceptions and free travel would continue for under 10s, for 11-17 year olds who live more than 2 miles from their school or college, for 11-17 year olds who live less than 2 miles if they were under a social worker, have an educational health and social care plan, attend alternative provision, if there were no safe walking routes to school or they couldn’t walk because of a physical disability. 

·         Discussions with the Government were continuing.  There were still some technical complexities still to be worked out.

·         The aim was to prevent overcrowding and facilitate social distancing on public transport.

·         The same aim was behind the decision to temporarily remove free peak time travel for the Over 60 Oyster card and Freedom Pass holders, which had been implemented on 4 June 2020. 

·         Transport for London had contacted all in receipt of these passes to inform them of the changes and had written to health bodies, supermarkets and other organisations to ask them to give priority to over 60s for appointments and for priority access out of peak hours.

·         Over 10,000 older people in Enfield would have been affected.  An equality impact statement was being carried out. 

·         To mitigate the impact of these changes and to avoid a car led recovery, Transport for London had brought in measures to encourage walking and cycling, introducing schemes to make these activities safer and easier, including widening pavements and erecting temporary barriers.

·         Transport for London had also written to schools to ask them to encourage active travel and would be providing an extra 200 buses, on the busiest routes, to help increase capacity, at key times. 

The Young Mayor of Enfield, Kayhan Ali, made a presentation on behalf of young people, highlighting the impact that the removal of concessionary travel would have on the under 18s.

·         The presentation included the reasons for the travel ban, who it would affect and why it was so important to young people.

·         There had been a strong backlash against the proposals.  The Child Poverty Action Group were running a campaign “Don’t Zap the Zip”. They had already collected a petition containing over 200,000 signatures and were also encouraging young people to contact their MPs. 

·         Free travel was essential to many young people, not only as a means of getting to and from school, but also to enable them to broaden their horizons, explore across London and meet up with their friends.  Many could not afford to pay and would not be able to go out and about without free travel.  Quotes from several young people were included. Free travel also had economic benefits for everyone. 

·         Public transport was for many a safer means of travel, particularly at a time of rising knife crime.  Young people often felt unsafe walking in their neighbourhoods, particularly after dark. These restrictions would be bought in at a time when the evenings would be getting darker. 

The Chair thanked Kayhan Ali for his excellent presentation and opened the discussion to all. 

The following points came up in the discussion: 

·         It was important to avoid a car led recovery to protect the environment and air quality. 

·         We should lobby Government to stop them implementing this change which would disadvantage young people and could also create confusion and dispute if the change was not well communicated. 

·         We need to lobby the Government to prevent this change which would save money at the expense of the most vulnerable both young and old and those with special educational needs.  It would restrict people’s freedom of movement and isolate people further, particularly those who could not walk or cycle. 

·         It was very important to protect this concession for young people who had suffered so much during this pandemic including the recent A level and GCSE results fiasco. 

·         So much had been done to encourage people to use public transport instead of cars, that it was a shame to go backwards with this move. 

·         More publicity was needed to make people aware of the changes and to encourage them to object.  The Young Mayor had lots of ideas about how to do this and was working on his own campaign. 

·         The contributions from so many immensely knowledgeable environment groups was welcomed by councillors.    

·         The focus for this forum had to be on environmental and health outcomes.

The Chair thanked everyone for their contributions and suggestions for action.  

AGREED to note all the contributions received and to express support for the campaigns to persuade the Government to reinstate concessionary travel to the affected groups.